The Fates
by OoOoOoO-Paris-Falls-OoOoOoO
Summary: Mr.Banner is just a High School History teacher, but the Fates have enlisted him for another job, what happens when he can't complete it? I'm sorry that all the words are bunched together, i can't fix the problem
1. Chapter 1

The Fates. They were Mr. Banner's favorite Greek myth of all time. He spat out information about the three crone-like goddesses, as if failure to tell the class every last thing about them would bring down the wrath of Zeus himself.

Students watched the clock, never blinking only watching, counting the seconds until the bell rang One hundred twenty-two, one hundred twenty-one.

Mr. Banner continued to drone on watching the clock as fervently as his students but in dread not anticipation. He spoke faster, his words became a jumbled mess. The middle-aged man had never been so nervous before in his life. He stuttered and appeared to drop fifty of his IQ points in his nervousness.

To soon for Mr. Banner, and not nearly soon enough for his students, the bell rang. The anxious high school students ran from the room as if they were being released from death by electrocution.

The classroom was empty, utterly bereft of any life. Except for the lone teacher who stood defeated at the front of his classroom. Staring at a table in the back row. Like the last mourner left at a loved ones grave.

Suddenly in a puff of wispy smoke three crones appeared at the table towards which he stared. They looked fragile As if they should be lying in a hospital bed instead of smiling evilly at Mr. Banner.

Their cloaks, leather sandals and wispy gray hair looked out of place by Mr. Banner and his trousers, blue dress shirt and shoes. They appeared so outdated in a room filled with globes, papers and posters of historical sites around the world.

As a group the old women moved forward and eventually they found themselves in front of a diorama of the Parthenon. Here they truly appeared to belong.  
"More time, I just need more time," Mr. Banner mumbled too quietly for anyone other than these three strange women to have heard. There in the middle of the women stood one who was rather short and squat. She was the leader.

From the folds of her heavy cloak she drew a pair of scissors. Like her they were old and decrepit, except the thin slice of blade that shone like the stars.

The last thing Mr. Banner saw was the smile on the short woman's face as she brought up the scissors to cut the thread now stretched tightly before her, and then Mr. Banner as he knew himself was no more.

**Review please**


	2. Chapter 2

Mr. Banner awakened to find himself lying on his back in the bottom of a ferry. It was cold and wet.

Above him stood a man haggard and time worn in appearance. This was Charon. He ferried the dead throughout the depths of Tartarus.

Mr. Banner shuddered at the thought of where he was. His movements unintentionally caught Charon's undivided attention. Bad move.

Charon's empty soulless eyes bored into Mr. Banner's, chilling him to the bone. Mr. Banner sat up in an attempt to break away Charon's unabashedly cruel gaze.

The immortal promptly bashed Mr. Banner on the head with his paddle and told him in a gravely voice to 'stay down'. Mr. Banner begrudgingly did as he was ordered, pouting as though he were a child. Their gazes remained locked until the bottom of the ferry scraped against sand.

Charon hopped nimbly out of the ferry and motioned with his bony hand for Mr. Banner to follow. In the teacher's defense he did try to follow but Charon - who is highly impatient for some one who has all the time in the world to wait - grabbed Mr. Banner by the arm and pulled him along.

Through the crowd of the poor and unloved they went, around the remaining rivers of hell, Mr. Banner certainly wasn't getting a run of the mill experience in Tartarus, not today. It was only to be expected that Mr. Banner would wonder why Charon was guiding him through this awful place, and who had paid him.

So great was his curiosity that Mr. Banner felt compelled to ask Charon. The immortal did not respond with words but rather pulled a heavy purse off of his belt loop and shook it. The coins inside jingled loudly. Even an immortal can be bribed as Charon had, paid for the ferry ride and a tour.

'Oh goody' Mr. Banner thought.

Charon stopped suddenly and Mr. Banner, who was too busy sulking to pay much attention to his surroundings, ran into him. It was like hitting a brick wall, Charon was more solid than he first appeared.

"Will you watch where you're go-" Mr. Banner cut himself off when he looked up to see what had given Charon reason to pause.

A large three headed dog stood in front of them blocking their path. Cerberus, the guard dog of Hades.

Charon slowly and silently, reached into the folds of his ragged cloak and Mr. Banner, remembering previous experiences with things hidden in cloaks, shirked away quickly. Yet another bad move.

Cerberus lunged forward, baring all of three sets of his teeth and growling menacingly at the two men before him. Charon shoved Mr. Banner to the ground and swiftly drew out a large piece of meat from his cloak and flung it at the creature who inhaled it greedily.

The immortal turned his attention back to Mr. Banner, who was picking himself up out of the dirt and brushing off his clothes. Charon grabbed him by his shirt collar.

"Fool! You realize that Cerberus could kill us both!" Charon hissed, pressing his face into Mr. Banner's.

When the teacher didn't answer him, Charon threw him back down into the dirt and stalked away. After getting a good distance ahead of Mr. Banner, he turned around and held his palm out in front of him, curling his finger and beckoning Mr. Banner to follow him into the fog.

Mr. Banner got up and followed before he realized what he was doing. When he did he cursed himself, and the almost God for having such control over his psyche. He stopped and Charon, ahead yet still completely aware of what was behind, followed suit, and turned to face him.

"What do you think you're doing?" Charon's voice was cold and cruel.

"I'm not going anywhere else with you until you tell me where we're going." Mr. Banner said haughtily.

Charon sighed.

"Fine, I'll tell you." the immortal gave in begrudgingly. "We're going to the palace of Hades and Persephone. Once there you will meet the judges of the Underworld."

"Minos, Rhadamanthus, and Aeacus." Mr. Banner said quietly.

Charon nodded. "Yes, they will decide whether or not you fulfilled your obligations to the gods."

"You mean to make people believe in the old gods again?"

"Of course. Did you have another mission that you failed to complete?"

Mr. Banner shook his head.

"Good. Now that you know where you're going, will you come along quietly?"

Mr. Banner, who at this point felt consigned to his fate, merely hung his head and nodded.

"Excellent." Charon grinned deviously, and with that he was gone, towing Mr. Banner with him.

Charon and Mr. Banner trudged throughout the underworld, through the barren land and the dense fog, around the Lethe the river of forgetfulness, and past the trivium where three roads met, Mr. Banner earning a pitying look from Hecate as they passed. Finally they reached the palace.

Hades palace was grandly eerie. The building was entirely composed of a shiny black rock, and its walls were adorned with tapestries that depicted the history of the gods. Magnificent, but the fog that rolled slowly along the ground and up the sides of the structure warned visitors away. Unfortunately for Mr. Banner, he could not heed that warning, not today.

Charon quickly pulled Mr. Banner inside and through the palace, tapestries and other paintings passed his eyes in a blur. Charon did not slow his walk until they had reached the last door in the palace.

The immortal pushed open the heavy iron door and motioned for Mr. Banner to walk inside with a flick of his wrist and a grin on his face. Mr. Banner trudged inside with his head hung low.

When Mr. Banner was fully inside the large room, he lifted his head and saw that there was not three gods in the room like he had previously thought there would be, but eight.

The rulers of the underworld as well as the fates had come to witness what Mr. Banner was sure would be his last moments of relative peace.

"Alexander Banner." the deep voice of Minos boomed from above. "We've been waiting for you."

**Okay I know not really much of a chapter but still... aren't you dying to know what's going to happen next? Even if you're not, please review, **


	3. Chapter 3

Mr. Banner slumped to the ground, defeated. The judges of the underworld had proclaimed that he had not fulfilled his duties to them and doomed him to float forever on the Phlegethan, the river of fire.

Charon, once the impromptu trial had run its course, came into the courtroom and escorted Mr. Banner back out the way that they had come. This time though there was a rather ominous looking chariot driven by two black horses waiting for them when they reached the entrance of the palace.

Charon wordlessly hopped in the chariot, pulling Mr. Banner inside along with him. When the teacher was fully inside Charon took off leaving a trail of dust in their wake.

"Why are you driving so fast?" Mr. Banner yelled over the noise of the horses' hooves.

Charon smiled. "I'm not taking you to the river of fire. I'm taking you to the Elysian Fields. We wouldn't want the judges to catch up now would we?"

"Why are you doing this for me?"

"Orders." the immortal answered simply.

"Of course."

The odd pair rode in relative silence for a while, the only sound the thudding of the horses hooves and the rattling of the chariot's wheels.

Neither spoke until they had reached the Elysian Fields. Charon pulled up right along the line where the dry dust turned to a luxurious landscape.

"Go quickly, before someone comes and discovers that you are not where you should be. Find a group and stick with them, they will keep you from being discovered."

And with that Charon wheeled the chariot around and left Mr. Banner to fend for himself in the Greecian paradise. Of course Mr. Banner was all right, you can't spend your afterlife in the Elysian fields and not be perfectly wonderful. Luckily the same can also be said for Charon, who was rewarded handsomely by Persephone herself for delivering Mr. Banner to what the goddess of the underworld felt was his rightful place. When Charon asked the goddess why she had deliberately gone against the wishes of her husband and the judges, she merely smiled and said, "It has been winter for his entire human life, Alexander's afterlife should be spent in the warm winds of summer, not the fires of hell."

**Okay I know its short but this is the absolute last chapter of this story, I don't know how I could even begin to continue it, in all honesty this was intended to be a one shot but I had one person who reviewed (and she was the ONLY one) that said they would like to see more, long story short I was so grateful for that one review that I wrote the rest of this, I sincerely hope that more people will read it now.**


	4. Chapter 4

Okay so I've been MIA for the past few months and I apologize, I've been really busy with well life and stuff and I promise that slowly but surely I am working on the next chapters to my stories and I do know where they will go.

On another note, none of you know this because well, quite frankly, I've never mentioned it here, but I'm just a 'little' shutter happy, and I take quite a few pictures, since I was told I should enter a photo contest, well I did, the cutest pet photo contest, and I'm in the semi finals, and my photo is being published in their next book so please please please please please please please please go vote for my picture of my cat Snickers and leave a comment if you did, it'll make me write faster :)))))))

www(dot)cutestpetcontest(dot)com/view100373941(dot)htm


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